I recently taught a business plan class and was blown away by the number of students who had not yet started their business.

The course was at the half way point and all of the students had amazing business ideas.  New products to import and export, new services they could enhance, online applications that could save time or create new communities and even a not for profit that targeted a new client niche.  They had constructed their ideas on well thought theories, were in varying stages of market research, and had outlined their first year of income and expenses.

Yet none of them had actually started the business.

They gave me a host of reasons

• Not enough cash
• Finalizing legal structures
• The need for venture capital of other financing options
• Selecting potential partners

These were all good reasons.  But none of them could answer why they hadn’t started testing the ideas on a few select customers and getting feedback. Continue Reading »

For many of you who are considering starting a business or are in the early days of running it, the last thing you are probably considering is how it will end.  I’d like to challenge you to consider it and decide now what options you want to create.

It’s like Life Insurance – no one wants to talk about it but you need to buy it.

I share this because recently a good friend had the unfortunate incident of being placed in charge of running the family business.  She is the spouse of a successful business owner.  He stepped down due to health conditions and had to have his legal dependent, his wife, take over the reins of the company.

Many of his workers are not happy.  The wife lacks many of the management and leadership skills that her husband had and is not familiar with the day to day operations of the business.

I blame poor planning.

All business owners  – regardless of the size of the business – need to consider how they want to leave their business.  Whether it’s due to Father Time or unforeseen incidents you need to consider options.

It’s also a good to consider an exit plan if you should decide one day that you want to try another industry or are interested in starting a new business.  It’s not just for someone who has worked in one business for 25 years.  You need to consider if you want to sell to another firm, offer shares to your current employees or dissolve the entity completely.  There are pros and cons to all options and I advise you consult with a lawyer and experienced entrepreneurs who have been in the position to exit their business for advice.

The key take-away – The exit plan is not just designed for some fancy smancy high tech startup looking to be bought out in 2 years.  There is huge value for businesses of all sizes and purposes to consider it well in the early stages of planning.

Looking for more information – check out these articles

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In Part I of ‘Tis the Season for Asking Powerful Questions, I shared a series of questions I use to assess my learning and growth from the previous year. After getting clear on these discoveries, I put them aside–for I know that what I’m meant to hold onto has been incorporated intellectually, physically, and spiritually—and then I go outline the year ahead. And when I say “outline,” I really mean that I go sit by some body of water, spray a lot of lavender, eat a cupcake (or 2 or 3), close my eyes, and ask the heavens: What’s going to be in the year ahead? How can I get out of my own way so that I can allow the plan for me to unfold? I let whatever comes up, come up…. and then I jot down my musings in a journal. Here is some of what spilled forth during last year’s “outlining” day:

-Laugh more often

-Proudly say I live in Las Vegas

-Publish a book

-Forgive faster

-Get interviewed on TV

-Buy a house

-Make a Greek dessert

Now, clearly not all of these items are of equal importance, nor have they all happened (I still have yet to make that Greek dessert), but 86% of the items on the list have happened and all 5 of my core goals (see below) will be achieved!!!

For the next part of this process, I reflect on my core values list–p. 50-52 in Awaken Your CAREEpreneur–ask the universe, and again listen, for which 5 of the 20ish things that previously came up move me towards better alignment with my core values. These become my goals or priorities for the next year.

I then pull out my planner and identify how on December 31st of the next year I’ll know if I succeeded in having achieved each of my priorities. For many of them are not items to check off a list. Last year, one of my top 5 included: live with more love and courage. (One of my grounds for assessment has been–walk away from conversations feeling I’ve communicated honestly and from a heart-centered place.) This area has been my greatest achievement (as far as I’m concerned this year), and being able to ask myself in situations calling for brave communication–Am I being honest and heart-centered?–has definitely empowered me to be the best version of myself.

Now, after getting clarity on my 5 priorities–which can be focused on any of the life spheres– I work backwards from the next December to January of the coming year listing any targets I feel are necessary to set for myself each month. (For a target to be set, I MUST have quite a bit of control over the outcome. For example, I can say I plan to call ____ people or attend ____ types of events. I’m not going to say I will have landed 3 national commercials or found my dream mate by a particular date. These kinds of goals are manipulative and set us up to fail.) I also plan in time each month to reflect on my progress, do some mini-celebration, and make any necessary tweaks to my priorities or design for living them.

Next, I grab a nice combo of business, home, lifestyle, and travel mags. I spend some time cutting out pictures, quotes, and articles that best represent my top 5 priorities and put them up on a big board that I hang in my office. And finally, I write a letter to myself congratulating Lex for who she’s become over the last year. I find writing this letter to be one of the most powerful visioning practices I engage in. It really creates a bridge from who I’ve been to who I’m aspiring to be…. and also illuminates necessary action steps that when I think in a linear way, I often overlook.

Whether you follow the exact outline proposed in this post, take a few of the exercises/practices that work for you, or follow your own or someone else’s practice, my hope is that you create the time necessary to intentionally close-out one year and make room for the next. And, just as importantly, prioritize goals in your development as a person (and in your roles as a child, parent, professional, leader, community member, etc.) over “stuff.” One of my favorite Marianne Williamson quotes, which I’ll wrap up with, is: “God laughs hardest when you tell Him your plans.”

While those who know me are aware that I am about as self-reflective as a human comes, I concede to even more self-analysis during the holiday season as I try to make sense of what has unfolded over the last year before having an eye towards the year ahead. I take stock of the good, the bad, and the confusing. I assess how many of my goals I got to. But most importantly, I take account of my learning and growth. And if I’m able to walk away saying I have been enough of an observer of my life to have created new beliefs, new habits, and new levels of gratitude as a result of my year’s living…. than by golly, I have had a successful year!

I like to create little lists of lessons I’ve learned…. and never need to learn again…to ensure that whatever gunk I had to wade through in a given year gets archived as useful accoutrement of character building. And in 2010, these top 5 lessons include: Continue Reading »

A few weeks ago I attended a terrific ASTD-Las Vegas presentation led by San Diego based trainer Jeff Toister. Jeff facilitated an engaging conversation around how to get CEO’s and senior directors’ expectations met when going in to implement coaching and training solutions. He encouraged us to shift from thinking about our impact in terms of Return on Investment (ROI) to Return on Expectations (ROE). For while in these tough economic times leaders may profess to care about the financial bottom line, it’s erroneous to assume success (from a client’s standpoint as well as our own) can always be measured in terms of money saved and money earned. Jeff’s words sparked a nice aha for me. Many of my clients would not measure their success with me simply in terms of their financial investment and the financial payoff.  And yet ROI is still bandied around in most corporate pitch sessions at the expense of discussing the client’s specific expectations (i.e., attracting and retaining higher caliber employees, national press coverage, sustaining a culture of corporate calm, etc.)

This discussion really got me thinking about CAREERpreneurship and how, as CAREERpreneurs, we want to get really clear on our long and short-term expectations if we’re to make the best possible choices for our career trajectories. What are our expectations for what we will have achieved (and who we will have become) by the end of our careers? How do the present opportunities before us fit with where we’re trying to go? Continue Reading »